Dynamics of person-supervisor fit in relationship quality and well-being of university academicians

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how the quality of a subordinate's relationship with his or her direct supervisor influences the subordinate's psychological well-being and to examine the moderating role of person-supervisor (P-S) fit between these two variables. Design/methodology/approach: The sample for this study consists of 418 academic employees of two federal universities. Relationship quality, P-S fit, psychological well-being and demographics were self-reported by the participants using existing scales. Hypotheses were tested with partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 3.2.8. Findings: Results of the PLS-SEM showed that the positive relationship between relationship quality and psychological well-being was moderated by P-S fit, such that the relationship was stronger when P-S fit was low rather than high. Research limitations/implications: The small number of homogeneous sample size of university academic employees may not be representative of the general population of such employees within the country. Practical implications: The findings highlight the importance of taking into account the complex interplay between relationship quality and P-S fit when optimising employee's psychological well-being is the focus. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, we are not aware of any studies that have examined the moderating role of P-S fit between relationship quality and subordinate's psychological well-being in the university context.